The Garden of Gethsemane
THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Preached @ Women’s Jail
By: Pastor Carolyn Sissom
“The Pattern Son, Jesus Christ went through two gardens to open up the Third Garden, which is the Paradise of God.” (Author unknown)
- The Garden of Gethsemane (“Olive Press”) (Mt. 26:30-39): “Father if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but your will be done.”
- The Garden of the Cross and the Tomb: “They took the Body of Jesus and wound it in linen clothes with the spices…In the place where He was crucified was a garden; and in the garden, a new grave where was never man yet laid.”
In Song 6:2, this garden is described prophetically: “My Beloved has gone down into His Garden to the beds of spices to feed in the Garden and to gather lilies.”
Here is the revelation of the indwelling Christ and the union and communion of the Most Holy Place, The Third Garden.
Man began in a garden. He sinned in a garden. He was driven forth from the garden. Jesus came. He passed through two gardens. He died in a garden. He opened up the Third Garden.
The Third garden is the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven. It is the Holy of Holies, Zion, the realm of His absolute Lordship (Ro. 14:17). This is the rest of God. It is” the Holy City, New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people and God Himself shall be with them and be their God” (Rev. 21:1-3)
Rev. 22: 1-2 “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God, and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
The Tree of Life speaks of receiving Divine Life. The River of Life which flows out of Eden is the giving forth of Divine Life. Inside the Garden of Eden, the river was one. Only after leaving Paradise is it divided.
If you follow the river, it will lead you to the source. The Old Testament source is Eden, the Garden of God. The New Testament source is the Throne of God and the Lamb. Both are on Mt. Zion. The River flows from the heavenlies. The river will lead you to the Lamb upon the throne.
Recently I had a vision and written out in the vision was the words, “That which is in Heaven will be Heavenly on earth.”
I ran across a poem today written by George H. Warnock. This is only one of the stanzas of a six page poem:
When Heaven Touches Earth:
“No eye has seen, nor ear has heard
What God has prepared for him
Whose heart has been stilled to wait for God
When the light of the way grows dim;
When he cries for Heaven and Earth to meet,
And for mountains and hills to flow,
And he feels so sure that the time is ripe
For God to come down and show
His might and His power and make bare His arm
To a people oppressed and made low,
“You have done it before, please do it again”
Is the cry of the bleeding heart,
“O why do you wait, when the need is so great,
Why do you tarry so long?”
“So it is that the Cross of Christ becomes the beginning of a new era for the children of God. Old things begin to pass away, and all things begin to become new. The bondage of the world, the flesh, and the devil, gives way to a liberty in the Spirit, and a life of servitude to the God of our salvation. ‘Being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness.’ (Rom 6:18) From the time we receive Christ as our personal Savior, and really partake of the benefits of Calvary’s Cross---from that very hour we begin a new life in God.
Luke 22: “Now the feast of unleavened bread drew near, which is called the Passover…
Jesus Christ is the Feast of Passover. He used the observance of the Feasts to explain and reveal Himself. So it was on the occasion of the last Passover that Jesus revealed its true spiritual significance. To fulfill as the righteousness of the Law on the one hand, and to establish the New Covenant on the other, the Lord kept this Feast with His disciples, “with desire”.
(Vs.8) And He sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us the Passover that we may eat… (Vs15) And He said to them, With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say to you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.”
He greatly desired to do this that He might introduce His disciples into a new order of worship and fellowship in the Spirit. On the eve of the Passover, when He himself was about to be slain as the true Passover Lamb, then it was that our Lord gathered His disciples together and gave them the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper He finished the old ceremony that He might establish the new. It is always consistent with God’s plans and purposes that He takes away the first before He establishes the second (Heb. 10:9); First the earthly, then the heavenly; First the flesh, and then the Spirit. Christ was therefore desirous to eat the last Passover with His disciples, that He might take it away and establish the new Feast, the Lord’s Supper.
“ And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this and divide it among yourselves; For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come. And he took bread, and gave thanks and broke it, and gave to them saying, This is my body which is given for you; this do in remembrance of Me. Likewise, also the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you.”
“…the Lord’s Supper, when observed in the Spirit, and in spiritual union and fellowship with the saints, is actual participation with Christ. The cup of blessing which we bless and the bread which we break, is communion with the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 10:16).
“For we being many are one bread, and one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread.” (1 Cor. 10:17)
The Body of Christ is a spiritual Body and the unity in that Body is a spiritual unity. In this Body, Divine life can flow from one member to another, and from Christ the head to all members---as the various members minister one to another by the Spirit, and Christ the Head ministers to the whole Body by the same Spirit. Feasting upon the Unleavened bread, therefore is living in real genuine fellowship and communion with Christ and with all the saints.”
“Lord evermore give us this bread. Make us one, even as you did pray in the gathering darkness of the Cross. Purge out of our midst the old leaven, that we might become a new lump. Rid us of all our carnal ways---from hatred, strife and unforgiveness.” Help us to press on with you, fleeing from the corrupting influences of the world, the flesh and the devil.
WHEN HEAVEN CAME TO EARTH:
He came again in the fullness of time,
To a world in the darkness of sin
To show a great light, to be a great Light
That would lighten the hearts of men.
The earth did not quake, nor the heavens shake
As He lay in a cradle of hay,
But when Jesus our Lord hung on Calvary’s hill
To atone for the sins of men,
The last words He spoke made the earth to shake,
And the heavens to darken their face.
“It is finished” He cried, and with that He died,
With the work of redemption complete.
Then after three days He arose from the dead,
And the hopes of His people revived.
Will you stay and be king? Is what they implied,
As their broken dreams spring into life---
But No! He must go to a heavenly throne,
And from there He must rule and reign,
Till the earth is subdued, and the heavens are purged,
And He scatters the Kingdoms of men…
And so there He now reigns, not from temple or throne
That men have erected on earth,
But from Heaven itself, with power and with love
To transform the hearts of men,
To minister grace by the Spirit of Truth,
Through men in the earth who are true,
And who walk with Him, and abide in the Vine,
That their words might be His---not their own,
To birth a new race, through mercy and grace,
To beget His own kind in the earth… (George H. Warnock)
Preached by: Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Scripture from K.J.V. Poem, When Heaven Touches Earth from Chain Reaction in Realms of the Spirit; by: George H. Warnock.
The vision of That Which is in Heaven will be Heavenly on Earth was given to me. The views and conclusions are my own as revealed to me by the Holy Spirit not meant to reflect the views of those from whom I have gleaned. My notes on this teaching date back to 2002. If I gleaned from other sources, I did not make a notation. I hope it will be received as an exhortation and blessing to those to whom it is sent